Buffalo cop posts videos on Vine, gets suspended without pay

Buffalo Police Officer Richard Hy, 29, a three-year member of the force last assigned to the Housing Unit, was suspended without pay Monday afternoon over his video skits using the social media site Vine.

The short videos were posted under the user name “Angry Cops” and were apparently meant to offer a lighter side to policing. As of early Tuesday afternoon, a couple of the posts that were visible earlier in the morning had been deleted.

Hy often appears in uniform in the videos – there are at least two where you can see his name “R. Hy.”

In one, he seems to pretend that he’s shot a suspect.

In another, he jokes that he’s taken cocaine from the evidence locker.

He makes fun of two people who apparently overdosed while at drug court. “2 #idiots #overdose WHEN THEY ARE INSIDE #DRUG #COURT !!!!!” he wrote on that post from Nov. 25.

One post shows him and another man pretending to be a cop and a suspect under arrest in some sort of domestic situation. “I didn’t hit her THAT hard,” the other man says as Hy is at the wheel.

Hy also pretends to be locked up in a cell in several skits, making jokes about the pink paint used on the bars and in one, lip-synching to Adele’s hit ballad “Hello.”

According to Police Department policy, officers can take part in social media but not in uniform.

Under the police union’s contract with the city, he can be suspended without pay for only 30 days.

Officer Hy responded to the media coverage last night on his Instagram account: